Methods are well known in the prior art for scratching a picture through an opaque or dark coating to reveal a color beneath the coating. A prior art product produced by the present inventor utilizes a wood stylus to scratch a picture through a black top coating applied to a suitable colored substrate.
One prior art patent (see Bruskin U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,042) describes a method of producing a picture such as a stained glass panel including a paint removing step. Another prior art reference (see Childs U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,587) describes a method of making color separation plates including the steps of individually scraping a plurality of various solid colored sheets and superimposing the sheets to create offset printing plates. Other scratch-to-sketch products and processes are also known in the prior art (see for example Hess U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,103 which shows the use of a ceramic base).